DeKALB | The Board of Trustees released its annual review of former President Doug Baker on the last day of his term, identifying four initiatives upon which officials will now focus.

The evaluation, which is completed annually per Baker’s contract and the Board’s Regulations and Bylaws, began in mid-April, according to an April 17 Campus Update. Acting President Lisa Freeman will apply the feedback to her term, as Baker is no longer in office following his June 30 resignation, according to a memorandum that included the report released by John Butler, former Board of Trustees chair.

The evaluation found a need for officials to focus upon improving recruitment strategies; reducing costs and realigning programs to address financial woes; differentiating NIU from other in-state higher education institutions by developing a “shared comprehensive vision”; and bettering compliance protocols, according to the memorandum.

“These significant challenges and opportunities, and others, will require that NIU leverage the talents and creativity of the university’s leaders, faculty, staff, students, alumni and allies,” Butler said in the memorandum.

These focal points were listed by Butler in the memorandum, to which there was attached a three-page review of Baker focusing upon highlights from the “360-degree feedback” collected by Greenwood/Asher & Associates, a third party firm specializing in administrative evaluations that was hired to assist in the review process.

“The Board is grateful to the many respondents who participated in the 360 review, and wish to assure the NIU community that the feedback will continue to be useful in the Board’s formation of its expectations and aspirations for the NIU presidency,” Butler said in the memorandum.

The firm conducted more than 75 interviews over the course of three weeks with Board members, faculty, students, staff, administrators, local elected government officials, alumni and past employees, according to the report. Its findings were presented to the Board during closed session May 18.

The review identified eight successes and eight opportunities to focus upon going forward in Baker’s tenure, all of which were based upon NIU community feedback.

Baker’s “reputation for being a champion for diversity and inclusion” was identified as a success in the report. During his term, officials hired Chief Diversity Officer Vernese Edghill-Walden and hosted a series of Diversity Dialogues.

Listed as an opportunity to seize going forward was the “refinement of an integrated set of management policies and procedures” per NIU’s pillar of ethically inspired leadership.

The expanded reviewal process was proposed following the Faculty Senate’s near vote of confidence on Baker during a March 29 meeting. The proposed vote stemmed from a perceived lack of transparency in Baker’s discussion of his hiring practices in 2013 and 2014 — the same practices that resulted in an investigation by the Office of the Executive Inspector General, a state watchdog agency, ultimately leading to Baker’s resignation.

Rather than taking the vote, Faculty Senate members chose to work with the Board to establish the involvement of the entire university community in Baker’s evaluation process.

Baker has declined any request for comment following the announcement of his resignation.